'American Idol' winner Phillip Phillips debuts at No. 4 on The Billboard 200, selling 169,000 copies of his "The World From the Side of the Moon" album. / Nick Walker

by Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY

by Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY

American Idol
gets a strong first week of album sales from its winner for a second straight year. Phillip Phillips - whose coronation single, Home, has sold more than 2.5 million copies - debuts at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 this week, behind Rihanna, Taylor Swift and One Direction.

Phillips sold 169,000 copies of The World From the Side of the Moon, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That puts him in the ballpark of last year's winner, Scotty McCreery, whose Clear as Day sold 197,000 copies in its first week, then went on to sell 1.1 million copies. Phillips' album had a better debut than initial releases from previous Idol winners Jordin Sparks, Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze.

"It looks like Phillip's going to be a platinum artist, as well," says Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine, who also serves as a mentor on Idol. "I know there are a lot of these shows, but to have two years in a row, that's something Idol can be proud of, because that's what the promise is.

"The whole idea of these shows is to have somebody become successful, give them a shot at their dream. American Idol seems to have cracked that code. Everybody talks about all these shows, but this seems to be the one that people come from."

Idol has three acts in the top 12 of the Billboard chart this week, as Kelly Clarkson's greatest-hit set debuts at No. 11 and Carrie Underwood's Blown Away sees a 349% increase in weekly sales to jump from No. 35 to No. 12 - and to pass a million total sales, as well.